If I have all this inspiration, why am I not inspired?

Here's my little art nook in my kitchen: the desk where I usually sit and blog from my laptop or stare at Ebay for hours. Rubber stamps? Check. Acrylics, watercolors, canvasses, frisket, brushes? Check. Paper scraps, punches, glitter, ribbon? Check. Even a soldering iron and drill. Beads, wire and clasps? Yep. Mod podge, gel medium, Fixatif, glues and Gesso? Yes, yes, yes and yesso!

As you can see, I have so many supplies, my shelves are bending uder the weight. And this doesn't even show my yarn stash, spray paints, embroidery floss, portfolios of paper, vintage and antique trinkets, piles of magazines and craft books, birds' nests, dollheads...you get the idea.

So what is wrong with me? I have barely created anything in months. I feel bored and say I can't think of anything to do or to make. And yet, in the first two or so years of this blog, 2007-2009, I created with wild abandon and posted pics to Flickr, participated in swaps, sent stuff for publication, and just generally was on a tear. And now I am just...stuck.

Can someone un-stick me?

How not to go on vacation?

Ahhhh! North Myrtle Beach, S.C. Arrived April 2. This is approximately my 40th visit in 25 years. This vacation was so needed; doctor's orders even. I haven't blogged here lately or posted (or made) much art. Haven't been feeling too creative or inspired or energetic.

So, I thought I would bring plenty of inspirational supplies, reading material and the like on vacation. The pics above don't even include the four Blythe dolls I brought to photograph and all of their belongings and props. But what you do see are enough supplies to knit, crochet, embroider, paint with acrylics, paint with watercolors, draw with charcoal or graphite, and of course equipment to photograph, blog, listen to music or do real work.

I wonder if I need "help" in learning how to take a vacation? I didn't used to. Already I have a sunburn. That might be viewed as a positive in this situation. We shall see. More to come...

Vintage goodness: shadow boxes, projects, buttons and a magnetic memo tray

I decided it was high time to go through my two tins of buttons, and when I found this vintage tray a magnetic memo board came to life. The tray is actually salmon-colored, with gold and black, and so I used an assortment of red, pink, black, gray and gold buttons and the trusty glue gun.

I've been collecting vintage medical supplies for a long time, since I work in health care. The perfect shape shadowbox came along, and voila! Medical shadow box. I love using old printer's type-storage trays and drawers for shawdow boxes. My next project is to incorporate my vintage art, school and office supplies.

Sharing the Love

The 45 Days of My St. Valentine's

Valentine's actually started around here more than 45 days ago, but I'll just count from here as that is when I received the gorgeous, luscious, delicious, wonderful, enchanting, adjective-laden box (very top 5 photos) from Andrea Hamilton in MN, my partner in Kari Ramstron's "Artsymama's For the Love of Supplies Valentine Swap." http://artsymama.blogspot.com/. I was so eager to sign up for this after the holidays, and lucky to get in, as the waterfall of signer-uppers caused Kari to have to close the swap early. Heck, Heather Simpson-Bluhm's Hippity Hop Easter Swap http://12-days.blogspot.com/was closed the day I saw the announcement, and I was Johnettie-on-the-spot, I thought.

Anyway, I truly think I got the best deal, best swap, best partner! Thank-you, Andrea! This was her first swap- unbelievable!. Look how thoughtful- she sent a sweater for my Blythes, with the coolest bottlecap pin. The lid was so cool, with the nametag and Betty Boop earrings that I could not even open the box until someone, anyone, came home to help me enjoy the process. I should have just invited the mailman in, but we all know what that leads to, and besides, I have a mail lady.

So, back to this box: oodles of embellishments and supplies, two postage stamps I've never seen before of dolls (and I like both stamps and dolls), vintage jewelry, gorgeous lace and ribbons. I don't know how I'll be able to use any of it.

Meanwhile, the bottom three photos are what I sent to Andrea, using a lot of Love, Elsie! products from KI Memories. I also enclosed a lot of similar things, so it is almost eerily funny how we like a lot of the same things. Thank you again! I will definitely be celebrating V-Swap Day from now until February 14.

WIPS and What Was I Thinking?

I Need 5 Days with No Sleep!

Today at the beach is full cloudshine, so I thought I'd work on a 'few' things. Although now that I have everything out, I am a bit overwhelmed. Really. Did I really pack all this stuff? Am I really going to read all these books? I even brought my sewing machine. I think I may have lost my mind. Hopefully, it is still back in Indiana. My WIPs are a couple of beachy shadowboxes. One I am going to take outside to paint and distress any minute. I also bought Pearl Ex pigments, which I have never used before, to give it an oceanic glow. Some of the mess I actually did buy here, as I scored a seahorse and some driftwood as well as some felted wool flowers at A. C. Moore and more curly feathered birds at Michael's. Something tells me packing is not going to be fun.